Released April 25, 2023
The annual Mega 1000 — the fifth section of the Real Estate Almanac — ranks the largest residential real estate brokerages by their full-year 2022 stats.
Residential real estate brokerages are an essential element in the industry: they provide the legal mechanism for the buying and selling of homes, support agents with company structure and training and collaborate with local competitors to ensure the real estate market remains as healthy and fluid as possible. Brokerages offer administrative, operational, marketing, technology, legal and branding and training services to real estate agents who hang their license with them. Agents typically interact directly with consumers who usually recognize brokerages as a corporate or umbrella brand on shopfronts, for sale signs, websites, and legal contracts.
A residential real estate brokerage is a company – usually an incorporated firm, a limited liability firm or a sole proprietorship – licensed to sell real estate in the US. As defined in the Real Estate Almanac, a brokerage company’s numbers include subsidiaries in which the company owns a controlling stake of more than 50 percent of the company.
For example, the nation’s third largest brokerage, HomeServices of America, owns and operates approximately two dozen regional or local brands, such as Edina Realty, Long and Foster Real Estate, Houlihan Lawrence and Ebby Halliday Realtors. The annual sales volumes of those brokerages, and others within the HomeServices of America stable, roll up to HomeServices of America because it owns more than 50 percent of each of those brokerages. Anywhere Advisors has a similar situation; it owns numerous regional Coldwell Banker-branded companies as well as some companies under other brands such as Corcoran Group. Some brokerages stand alone or operate under a single entity or brand such as Redfin, Compass and eXp Realty.
Other brokerages affiliate with franchise brands. Brokerages not affiliated with a brand are often referred to as independents. Examples of large franchise brands within the industry include RE/MAX, Keller Williams Realty and Coldwell Banker. Eighty percent of the brokerages in the Mega 1000 are affiliated with a brand and 20 percent operate under their own brand. These non-franchise-affiliated companies have been referred to as “independents.” However, today’s varying structures render the word misleading and often results in incorrect groupings. Many independents also hold membership in a real estate network such as The Realty Alliance or Leading Real Estate Companies of the World.
Released January 10, 2023
Released annually in January, the Swanepoel Power 200 (SP 200) — the first section of the Real Estate Almanac — ranks the most powerful and influential executives in the residential real estate industry.
Now in its 10th year, the SP 200 ranks the nation’s 200 most powerful leaders. To do this, T3 Sixty dedicates hundreds of hours of research into analyzing company performance, personal bios and influence, company organization charts and in clarification calls with industry leaders — from the industry’s largest brokerages and franchise brands to its biggest MLSs and Realtor associations to the leaders of its most significant technologies.
In addition to the main list, the Power 200, which ranks the industry’s 200 most powerful leaders (which includes slightly over 200 leaders as some positions include duos or trios), the SP 200 includes two bonus lists: Watchlist and Outside Influencers. The Watchlist comprises emerging leaders who are doing compelling things in the industry and who T3 thinks may make their way on to the Power 200 list in coming years — leaders to watch. The Outside Influencers include leaders who do not operate directly in the residential real estate brokerage industry, but, by their positions, hold immense power in the industry and who must be recognized in any consideration of industry power.
Released February 21, 2023
Released annually in February, Organized Real Estate — the second section of the Real Estate Almanac — ranks all MLSs, local Realtor associations and state Realtor associations by membership size.
Realtor associations, with MLSs, are collectively referred to as organized real estate, which represents the infrastructure upon which the residential real estate brokerage industry functions. These organizations play a major role in setting industry professionalism; they advocate at the national, state and local level for homeownership and major issues that support their members’ business and manage local MLSs, which enable the buying and selling of houses, apartments and other real estate.
Multiple Listing Services
Multiple listing services (MLSs), often owned and administered one or more local Realtor associations (a few are owned by brokerage collectives), serve as the residential real estate listing data hub and marketplace in markets throughout the U.S. They also facilitate the terms of cooperation brokers abide by when representing real estate buyers and sellers in the market. MLSs essentially serve as cooperatives, the result of brokerages coming together to collaborate on marketing and selling each other’s listings. They are anchored by a technology platform, often provided by a third-party software provider.
Local Realtor Associations
As trade associations, Realtor associations are nonprofits owned by their members. They represent their members and aim to help them improve the quality of service they provide, their education and professional standards. The classic Realtor association mission is simple: to make members more profitable and more successful. Many also own and run a multiple listing service, either as the sole owner in the case of a Local MLS or as part of a group of other stakeholders in a Regional MLS.
Realtor associations come in three varieties, determined by geographic scope: national, state and local. Realtor associations have a federated makeup led by the National Association of Realtors: members cannot join just one. When agents join a local association, to gain access to the MLS, for example, they automatically join the state association in which the local is headquartered and NAR; the memberships are tied together in what is known as the three-way agreement.
State Realtor Associations
State Realtor associations are the middle-tier between local Realtor associations and NAR in the federated, three-way Realtor structure explained in the section above. State Realtor associations serve as the legislative and regulatory voices for real estate at the state level where many licensure laws and tax structures are established. Many provide essential services like education or benefits such as forms for members and local associations.
State Associations are also responsible for the annual core standards certification passed down from the National Association of Realtors with minimum service and organizational requirements that local associations must maintain to be chartered by NAR.
Released March 21, 2023
Released annually in March, the Tech 200 is an annual identification of the residential real estate brokerage industry’s best-in-class tech products designed to help brokers, teams, and agents better identify, evaluate and choose the technologies that will help them grow and streamline their businesses. Based on its extensive consulting practice and thorough research, T3 Sixty selected 199 leading products from 78 companies for the 2023 Tech 200. The publication also identifies 32 products gaining traction in the industry with a new Watchlist feature.
Each product is mapped across the T3 Tech Landscape, a framework that organizes industry technology products by how brokerages, teams and agents actually use them in their businesses. This involves separating the tools into functional categories, defined by where they fit into the real estate process or where they land in the consumer sales funnel. The landscape includes six sections, and 42 groupings in the following organization:
- Top of the Funnel (5 categories, 18 subcategories): Generating initial consumer
contacts - Middle of the Funnel (8 categories): Building relationships and
turning prospects into clients - Bottom of the Funnel (6 categories): Processing or facilitating
transactions - Post Funnel (4 categories): Engaging consumers to win repeat-and-referral
business - Business Systems (5 categories): Refining, forecasting and optimizing businesses
- Platforms: Providing integrated tools in one solution
Released March 30, 2023
Released annually, Corporations — the fourth section of the Real Estate Almanac — ranks the nation’s largest enterprises, franchise brands and franchisees by annual sales volume, transaction sides and agent count. It also lists all public companies with significant residential real estate brokerage operations and their key details.
Enterprise 20
The Enterprise 20 accounts for the full scope of the US’s largest real estate companies. It ranks the US’s largest real estate enterprises, also known as holding companies, by full-year 2022 sales volume and transaction sides and by year-end agent count.
The ranking considers the production of both a company’s owned and franchised offices. Some companies only have owned operations, some only have franchised operations and some have both.
The makeup of some of the largest real estate enterprises follows:
- Anywhere Real Estate: Production for Anywhere Real Estate includes that of its brokerage wing, Anywhere Advisors, and its six franchise brands: Coldwell Banker Real Estate, Sotheby’s International Realty, Century 21 Real Estate, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, ERA Real Estate and Corcoran Group.
- Keller Williams: Production for the holding company centers exclusively on its franchise brand Keller Williams Realty. It operates no brokerages at the holding company level.
- RE/MAX: Production for the holding company RE/MAX also centers exclusively on its franchise brand RE/MAX; it owns no brokerages.
- HomeServices of America (HSA): Production for HSA includes that of its brokerage subsidiary of the same name and its franchise brand Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices.
While many real estate holding companies could own a number of different businesses such as title and mortgage companies, the Real Estate Almanac ranks the companies by their real estate brokerage stats.
Franchise 20
The Franchise 20 ranks the US’s largest franchise brands by full-year 2022 sales volume and transaction sides and by year-end agent count.
T3 Sixty uses the term franchise brand refers to specific real estate brands and franchisor to refer to franchise groups that operate multiple real estate brands; for example, Anywhere Brands is a franchisor that runs the franchise brands Coldwell Banker Real Estate, Sotheby’s International Realty, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, ERA Real Estate and Corcoran Group. Some franchisors only operate one franchise brand such as Keller Williams Realty and RE/MAX.
A real estate franchise brand is the distinct brand that real estate brokerages can affiliate with; instead of providing brokerage services directly, franchise brands license their systems and brand to brokerages. A franchisor is the legal entity that owns one or more franchise brands. The franchise brands table ranks individual brands. For example, all of Anywhere Real Estate’s brands are considered separately.
Franchisee 20
The Franchisee 20 ranks the US’s largest franchisees by full-year 2022 sales volume and transaction sides and by year-end agent count.
Franchisees are brokerages who affiliate with one of the industry’s real estate franchise brands. They own and operate their own companies, but leverage the systems, processes and other support provided by the brands with which they affiliate.